Hands-on with the Dell Adamo
Now that's a glossy screen.
One of the most buzzed-about new laptops of 2009 is Dell's Adamo, a high-end, ultrathin 13-inch model that starts at $1,999 and shares a design sensibility with the MacBook Air and the HP Voodoo Envy 133.
After teasing the system at CES 2009, Dell formally announced its online availability starting March 17, and we've managed to get our hands on a preproduction version of the hardware to bring you our initial impressions.
At first glance, the Adamo, is a stark break from Dell's recent laptop designs, built into an aluminum case with unibody construction, similar to the current MacBooks. The model we have is black (Dell calls it "onyx") and a white "pearl" version is also available. The back of the lid and the keyboard tray are split between brushed metal and a fingerprint-attracting glossy finish.
About 0.65 inch thick, Dell claims this is the thinnest laptop in the world. It's certainly thin, but going toe-to-toe with the MacBook Air, the true "thinnest" title is open to interpretation. The tapered Air is thinner at its narrowest point, but slightly thicker at its widest point. In either case these are both very slim systems.
Picking up the Adamo, we were surprised at how heavy it felt. At a hair under 4 pounds, it's certainly lightweight, but based on the size, we were expecting something closer to the 3-pound MacBook Air.
Dell is pitching the Adamo as a "luxury brand notebook design for the luxury conscious consumer," which may not seem like the most timely of ideas, considering the current economic climate and the resultant growth in low-cost Netbooks. While the timing may be unfortunate, products such as this generally have long, multiyear production cycles, from concept to release.
As a luxury laptop, the Adamo has plenty of high-end visual touches. The pearl finish has a wavy pattern etched into it, while our black model has a more traditional brushed-metal look. Notably, the usual brand and regulatory stickers have been removed, in favor of etching the information directly into a panel on the system's bottom.
Instead of the typical Christmas tree of lighting effects found on laptops in all price ranges, the Adamo has only a handful of small LED lights, for the power button, the touch-sensitive media controls, and the caps-lock button, as well as a backlit keyboard. Besides Adamo-branded desktop wallpaper, Dell also created a custom Windows Vista theme for the system, called Adamo Ice. Along with branded accessories Dell plans to offer, it's all part of a concept for the Adamo "brand ecosystem."
The keyboard itself is a big change from the typical Dell laptop keyboard, which has always had tall, tapered keys. This borrows more from the Dell Mini 9, with flat, closely spaced keys, similar in style to what you might find on a MacBook or Sony Vaio. We found the keyboard easy to use, but there's a little wasted space at either side of the keyboard tray that could have been used to space out the keys more. The keyboard itself has too much flex in the middle, and the keys are a little clacky, but these could be issues with our prototype hardware. The metal touch pad was very good; sometimes using nontraditional surfaces on a touch pad can add uncomfortable friction and finger drag, but that was not the case here.
Adamo vs. MacBook Air
The 1,366x768 LED display is behind a sheet of edge-to-edge glass, again similar to the current MacBook line. It's a sleek look, but very susceptible to glare and reflections. The screen hinge is set back about an inch from the rear of the system, leaving what looks a little like a small handle when the display is open.
Other than a headphone jack and a user-accessible SIM card slot (the first time we've seen that on a laptop) on the right side, all the other ports and connections are on the rear edge. There are two USB ports, a USB/eSATA port, and an Ethernet jack, plus a DisplayPort video output (although dongles to other video connections will be available).
Inside, this prototype unit has a 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U9300, 2GB of RAM, and a 64GB SSD hard drive; these could change in the final shipping version of the Adamo, and we hear a 128GB SSD will be standard.
With a low-voltage version of Intel's Core 2 Duo, it's not meant to be a speed demon, however, in anecdotal hands-on use, we found the Adamo to be perfectly fine for normal multitasking--Web surfing, working on office docs, and media playback--and we'll run a complete series of benchmark tests on the final shipping version. We haven't had time to run a full battery drain test yet, but the battery icon in the system tray claims more than 3 hours of battery life on a full charge at the default power settings.
For more on the Dell Adamo, check out additional coverage from Erica Ogg and Rafe Needleman.
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New York native Dan Ackerman, a former radio DJ turned journalist, has written about technology and music for publications including Spin, Blender, The Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today. He hosts the weekly Digital City podcast and the New York edition of Editors' Office Hours. Dan's new album, Tales Out of Night School, is available now. E-mail Dan. 
But yes, I agree that someone looking for something for basic mobile use is much better off with a nice little netbook. The Air and the Adamo are purely for bragging rights
But oh well, I would never buy either of these, so it's really of no consequence to me. They're just fun to read about.
Ethernet ports are essential these days, so it's a bummer that Air doesn't have one. Again another advantage for Adamo.
Other than those two factors, they are pretty the same, and IMO none of them worth the money. I really don't care about the thickness, no matter what size is it, I can't fit it in my pocket and I have to put it in a laptop bag, so it's not a big difference.
For the Air, X300 and bleeding edge thin crowd all would be better served by the non luxery versions of ultraportables. X200, MacBook, etc.
Still don't see a buyers market for this device same as I didn't see a buyers market for the MacBook Air. Both items are impractical primary notebooks, lack features, overpriced, and in this case is underpowered. A standard 128GB SSD would be pretty nice for the money but I'm not banking on it.
And before I hear the "Dell stealing ideas again" line know that it takes several years for a product like this to go from concept to product. Apple happened to beat them to the market with the unibody design but no one "stole" the idea.
http://blog.allisinc.com/2009/03/17/falling-in-love-with-dell/
For for me, I buy the X310 before the Adamo, I like the no-nonsense look of the Thinkpad, and a complete set of connectivity will be critical on a long trip. Thinkpad als has higher perfomance processor options. $3000 for a low weight, highly mobile business tool, it's completely justifiable.
When you consider that both screens are open, it is impossible to compare.
Now go play with your Air, fanboy.
It looks like from the pictures the section behind the screen is thicker on the adamo than the rest of the computer.
My Dell Inspiron 1520 has a SIM slot under the battery. I guess that is why you haven't ever seen it before... it's near impossible to notice!
But really, it's all relative. I think there are plenty of fine looking dell computers and apple computers. But think of it this way - style evolves so fast that something that was gorgeous not too long ago (I'm thinking of just about any g4 desktop or laptop mac) would be considered pretty ugly/tacky by today's standards. I suspect in five years, we'll be thinking the same thing about today's computers.
As a Dell shareholder I'm not sure this is the thing that is going to drive value for the firm. Then again, Michael Dell had suggested Steve Jobs return the shareholders money and shut Apple down several years ago - maybe he is trying to imitate Apple's success this time around.
Sorry, there aren't any. The fact that cult/religion of Apple exists doesn't imply that other computers also have religious following. Windows users are just that - users. We use those things and then dispose of them. We don't worship them.
If only you were right. The Windows cult/religion just isn't hip like it was 10-15 years ago. Trust me, it was every bit as massive as any Apple following nowadays. Guys like me who were just trying to do this stuff for a living couldn't even consider getting into keynotes at conferences like COMDEX because there'd be this gaggle of little kids who'd stayed up all night to get as close as possible to Bill G to hear him tell everyone what the world was going to do next. Heck, right after that I even remember going to a tiny session Michael Dell had and talking to him as he walked out, all alone, no posse.
I guarantee there are plenty of Windows fanboys out there now, but it's not exactly hip to be a Windows apologist lately and may never be again. And if you let the product speak for itself it's pretty hard to imagine why they would be admitting it. Apple has the benefit of building an selling a seamless, elegant product from hardware to interface. Like it or not, that - combined with first to market design leadership and not some 'me too' thing like the Adamo - is the difference maker. Sucks to have to lead but someone's gotta do it.
My MacBook screen is noticably worse insofar as color and viewing angle than an XPS screen I've got. Both are better screens than my 4 year old ThinkPads. Still I expected more out of Apple.
Walmart loves folks like you and I mean that to be a insult.
I can't stop laughing when I read that.
This guy's got to be joking, right?
The 'but it costs money' argument just leaves me embarrassed for the guys (invariably) who make it. They're the sort who invite me on dates and then expect to split the check. With the MBA, you get what you pay for.
I don't really value an ssd that much, but some people do
The MacBook Air weighs less. AND it has an incredible weight distribution that makes it feel even lighter than it is. The Mac Air is actually much thinner all around, except for a very *negligible* difference at the very back. The Air is cheaper, more powerful, more stylish and more convenient. The Air isn't runnig MS.
Wonder if it has a unibody like the Air or is it creaky like the typical PC?
Most of you making comments on here are idiots. There is no basis to your comments. How can most of you question the speed of the system without having even seen one in person. The specs can be misleading. Just because a computer has 1300 MHz DDR3 RAM versus 1033 MHz DDR3 RAM, doesn't mean the 1300 MHz system will be faster than the 1033 MHz. There is something called timing that can affect the peformance along with type of hardrive, etc.
Yes, it is more expensive than your average laptop. People will still buy it because it meets their needs and desires. I'm glad it has an ethernet port (don't' have to rely on a dongle like the Macbook AIR) because for some of us who travel extensively around the world and the US, a lot of places still do not have wireless internet throughout the hotels and you still have to use an ethernet connection. With one built in, I don't have to carry one around just in case and don't have to worry about losing it.
The bottom line is that it comes down to what you intend to use it for. It might be a worthy investment for someone who primarily uses their laptop for business work and travels around the world on a regular basis. Most of your standard laptops are flimsy and take a beating while traveling around the world. The construction of this laptop seems to address this to an extent.
For those blasting paying a lot of money for a laptop; the truth is that in general by paying more you are rewarded down the road. Typically, the low cost laptops are either outdated or will be within the next year or two while the higher end laptops two to three years down the road will be mainstream. My Sony Vario was more expensive than most of your mainstream laptops; however, it has specs very similiar to the current Macbook and Dell laptops being released within the last year.
Overall, I plan on waiting till Windows 7 comes out (so I don't have to pay for an upgrade to the newest Windows OS) before I buy my next laptop. By then, the price will come down and there will be a lot more configuration options with this laptop.
The M1330, MacBook Air, and Adamo fail in comparison to the Dell XPS 13" laptop.
It has a NVIDIA GeForce 9500M with 256 MB of dedicated memory.
The problem with the Dell XPS 13 is that it competes with the Aluminum macbook, where when it is brought up to spec the macbook costs less than $100 more, and you get a laptop that is 1/2 inch thinner at its thickest point.
For a "cheaper cool" look I could see going with the Adamo for a $300-500premium. However, I have "upgraded" to the XPS line of laptops in the past and the support experience with Dell is not noticeably better. Can't imagine how they can transform a customer support machine to cater to the a premium price market. The technicians that show up to fix computers on site are not necessarily projecting a "premium brand" image - one regular I seem to get typically sports a 2-3 day stubble and looks more like a septic tank cleaner than a computer technician.
Good luck Dell.
Look at the picture of the two computers back to back in the article above--it sums it up much better than words.
When you're talking about machines this thin it doesn't really matter which one is actually thinner. What matters more is the weight and the Air wins that one.
- by MrMurder March 17, 2009 12:31 PM PDT
- I'm not going to get one. :[
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